That Time a Movie Made Me Sick

Yeah, so lets talk about this glorious day.

Just so y'all know, I am a huge baby and cry during about 80% of the movies that I see.  But this one was the worst.

July 11, 2009, I lost one of my best friends.  I had just pulled in front of my house after spending the day moving back from JMU for good.  So the day was bad enough already.  Then getting that phone call made the day go from bad to worse. 

I spent the whole rest of the day with my friends.  It was a difficult and emotional day and when I got home there was no way I could sleep.  I decided to watch a movie.  I picked Remember Me because I'd just bought it and hadn't watched it yet.  (PS Spoilers in the next paragraph).

My first mistake was picking a movie that I knew nothing about.  I hadn't even read the back cover, I just picked it up and decided to buy it.  I think Robert Pattinson is a good actor so I figured it could be good.  I'll spare you the details of the whole movie (which is excellent and I highly recommend it) and say that RP's characters Dad works in an office building in NYC, which you never see the outside of.  Well, RP's character goes to the building to meet with his Dad, who is late because he decided to take RP's sister to school (which is a big step for him).  It then shows a shot of RP looking out the window, then cuts to his sisters classroom where her teacher walks past the date on the chalkboard: September 11, 2001.  I was really out of it and figured that the class was learning about 9/11 in school.  Wrong.  Then it goes back to the office building showing RP in the window and zooms out.  Suddenly it hit me.  I just leaned over the bed and threw up in the trashcan next to the bed.  I spent the rest of the night shaky and crying.

This is the clip of the scene I described.

I had just moved back from college, lost my friend, and was reminded of another loss and the other worst day of my life all in about 16 hours.

And that is my super depressing, worst day ever post.  And the time a movie actually made me sick.

The Day My Life Changed

 *I am doing this one day early because I liked this better than Monday's topic and tomorrow is Travel Tuesday, which I just don't skip :)*

My life changed forever on July 11, 2009.  

The day started out pretty sad for me as I was leaving JMU behind.  It was already an emotional day. My family came to move all of my stuff out of my apartment.  My sister and I took one last walk around campus.  We then headed home.

I had my phone on silent the whole way home on accident but now I know it was a blessing in disguise.

I pulled up to my parents house and looked at my phone which had several missed calls from my friends.  So, I called my friend  Kristin first because she was the one who had called the most. 

That phone call completely changed my life. 

The first thing she asked me was if I was driving, this is when I knew something was wrong.  At first I couldn't understand what she was saying, she repeated herself three times.  Then she took a deep breath and I heard it "Brent died".   She told me he had been in a motorcycle accident earlier that morning. 

I didn't hear anything after that.  

My friend was gone.  Heather's boyfriend was gone. I had just seen him on the 4th of July.  We had just hung out.  He is only 20 years old. 

That day and the days that followed were a blur.  But after that week, a lot of thoughts settled in.

My friends and I were faced with the loss of a friend who was our own age.  Someone we thought we'd see grow older.  We were faced with our own mortality.   I was faced with the only regret in my life.

On July 5th a local town has fourth of July fireworks and a carnival.  I was supposed to go with Heather, Brent and Brent's cousin, Chelsea.   I ended up calling Heather to tell her that I was just going to head back down to JMU instead of going, that way I would get home at a decent time rather than 1 in the morning.  That is my only regret in my life, that I did not go to the fireworks.

This decision completely changed my life.  Now, if my friends ask me to do something, I say yes and I do it unless I have to work.  It doesn't matter if I really don't feel like going or I'm tired or whatever.  I go, I take full advantage of the time I have with my friends and I spend every minute I can with them, especially now that we all live in different places.

We all miss our friend every day, but I am happy for the time we all got to spend together.

Sometimes I Wonder, Who You'd Be Today

Brent, 

I still can't believe it has been four years since I got the worst phone call of my life.  Four years since we lost you.  Not a day goes by that I don't think of you.   Every wedding that goes by, every party we have, you should be there.  I will always remember you protecting Heather, Kristin and I from creepers at the club, racing around the deck, your random spaz attack in the pool, the night you had boobs, your awesome fireworks, drunk singing, and of course, Aflack!   You were a great friend to all of us and an incredible boyfriend to Heather and while I am sad for her, I am also happy that she got to experience true love while she was with you.  You will always be in our hearts and we will always love and miss you. 

P.S. I still have aflack and he lives on my night stand :)

Creeper

 

"Would you like to buy Aflack insurance"??

 It ain't fair you died too young
Like a story that had just begun
But death tore the pages all away
God knows how I miss you
All the hell that I been through
Just knowin' no one could take your place
Sometimes I wonder
Who you'd be today.

Miss you, friend

Brent Michael Hall
Feb. 3 1989 - July 11 2009